The quick-bond process described in Kreider and Fanti U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,043 was developed to make possible the manufacture in air of an aluminum matrix composite reinforced by a plurality of parallel layers of unidirectional filaments. This "air bonding" process comprises positioning a plurality of filament reinforced aluminum matrix monolayer tapes in a stack, and then pressing the stack between heated platens at high pressures in air to densify the matrix, the platen temperature causing bonding of the matrix to the filaments. It was believed that the monolayer tapes were best made by bonding the layer of filaments to an aluminum backing foil by a plasma sprayed metal coating such as aluminum. It is hoped that other less expensive forms of tape could be developed that would produce equally acceptable matrix composites.